Thomas Edison tried thousands of different materials in search of a filament for the light bulb. When none worked satisfactorily, his assistant complained, “All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing.”

Edison replied very confidently,

“Oh, we have come a long way and we have learned a lot. We now that there are thousands of elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb.“

You definitely dont have to make all the mistakes yourself. You can learn from the mistakes of others. Whatever you want to do in life, you will surely find someone who has done it before or something related to that. Why not study their story to see how they have been to get to where they are today. If you wait till you make all the mistakes on your own, it might be too late for you to bounce back.

Just after I left school in 2002, I teamed up with 3 other guys to setup a telecom company. Why 4 guys coming together to start a company? Each of us had different skill sets which we aimed to harness. Our focus was to offer quality and affordable telecom services. We completed our company registration with the Corporate Affair Commission. We were able to get an office space from the parents of one of us who believed in our dream and saw the reason to support us. He even paid for the rennovation work that was carried out in the office.

Each new day brought us enough reasons to believe that the company was meant to be real. In fact, within weeks on incorporation, we got some contracts to setup LANs and internet services in some companies both within and outside Lagos. I can still remember the day I heard we had just be awarded a contract to supply 50 computer systems to a company. We had submitted our bid like every other IT company and had gone to defend the bid. We didnt really expect much from the much considering the calibre of companies that took part in the bid with us. But we won the BID…

Within one year of existence, the company collapsed. It was like a dream but it was so evident that we were missing it somewhere. Something was wrong with the company structure we were putting in place. Our technical skill sets failed us. We just seemed to be doing everything wrong. Then, it dawned on me that you need more than technical skills to run a successful [tag]business[/tag]. One needs a combination of so many skills.

I learnt my lessons and I do believe the other 3 learnt theirs also. The whole experience was a very painful way to learn. But without pain, the old saying is, there is no gain. I found that to be true in my life. You miss a lot of [tag]opportunities[/tag] by making mistakes, but that is part of it knowing that you are not shut out forever, and that there is a goal you still can reach. The goal I couldnt reach with that company, I am gradually reaching with Nairahost…

NB: Watch for a series on my adventures in the business world

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